Memory and Sleep

I was curious about what many of my classmates wrote regarding their struggles with understanding what gets remembered while we sleep. One of the things I really like about some of my classes is the different media that are part of our homework especially the videos. Videos help me boil down information and understand it before I get into some of the articles. Simply put the act as a primer for me before I get into the deep weeds. I found this one ... linked below ... that discusses a study about sleep and memory but also delves into reinforcement during sleep to help make the memory stronger.

My organization is doing a lot of work with spaced reinforcement to help understand the benefits of the technique and the limitations. Running across this video where they were doing reinforcement and sleep was something I had not considered.Sadly it doesn't go into enough detail for me to provide any insight into the struggles you're having with understanding sleep in memory but I did think it was pretty interesting. Maybe it will provide you a starting point to find out more.

I also really like this second video that our professor provided that discusses how memory consolidation occurs during sleep. I thought the best part was about 4:45 minutes in when the narrator discusses when would be the best time to go to sleep to remember a procedural memory verse is the best time to go to sleep to remember declarative memories.

By following the links in the video to find out more I ran a crossed this article that titled System consolidation of memory during sleep by Jan Born and Ines Wilhelm. In it they write: "In subsequent periods of consolidation, the newly encoded memory traces are repeatedly reactivated and thereby become gradually reorganized such that the representations in the slow-learning long-term store are strengthened" (p. 193) and "Because both stores are used also for encoding of information, this encoding could interfere and disturb the proper consolidation process. Therefore, to prevent such interference, the reactivation and redistribution of memories during consolidation take place in offline periods, i.e. during sleep when there are no encoding demands" (p. 193). There is far more of the article that is worthwhile to read but I found those two sentences very intriguing. 

Additionally the article continues and the authors write: "events experienced during wakefulness are initially encoded in parallel in neocortical networks and in the hippocampus including, adjacent medial temporal lobe structures. Encoding in hippocampal networks is probably restricted to certain aspects, for example, episodic features of an event. During subsequent periods of sleep and, here mainly during slow wave sleep (SWS), the newly acquired memory traces are repeatedly reactivated and thereby become gradually redistributed such that  synaptic connections within the neocortex are strengthened forming more persistent memory representations" (p. 193). Having only today found this I'm still reading it to try and figure out exactly what it's trying to tell me but it certainly is worth a glance to try and help you understand the encoding of information into long-term memory.

As a side note the article continues with a discussion of hoe odors presented at the time of learning then again during different periods of sleep helped with consolidation during sleep (p. 195). Very similar to the spaced reinforcement I mentioned above.

References:

Born, J., Wilhelm, I. System consolidation of memory during sleep. Psychological Research 76, 192–203 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-011-0335-6